Item type:Article, Open Access

Grid-Coupled Geothermal and Decentralised Heat Supply Systems in a Holistic Open-Source Simulation Model for 5GDHC Networks

Abstract

This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively
In order to reach climate protection goals at national or international levels, new forms of combined heating and cooling networks with ultra-low network temperatures (5GDHC) are viable alternatives to conventional heating networks. This paper presents a simulation library for 5GDHC networks as sustainable shared energy systems, developed in the object-oriented simulation framework OpenModelica. It comprises sub-models for residential buildings acting as prosumers in the network, with additional roof-mounted thermal systems, dynamic thermo-hydraulic representations of distribution pipes and storage, time-series-based sources for heating and cooling, and weather conditions adjustable to user-specified locations. A detailed insight into an in-house development of a sub-model for horizontal ground heat collectors is given. This sub-model is directly coupled with thermo-hydraulic network simulations. The simulation results of energy balances and energetic efficiencies for an example district are described. Findings from this study show that decentralised roof-mounted solar thermal systems coupled to the network can contribute 21% to the total source heat provided in the network while annual thermal gains from the distribution pipes add up to more than 18% within the described settings. The presented simulation library can support conceptual and advanced planning phases for renewable heating and cooling supply structures based on environmental sources.

Metadata

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Völzel, Constantin (0009-0006-9344-1439); Lechner, Stefan: Grid-Coupled Geothermal and Decentralised Heat Supply Systems in a Holistic Open-Source Simulation Model for 5GDHC Networks. In: , Jg. (2025-06-17), . DOI: https://doi.org/10.17192/es2025.0122.